Reflections - I am missing the Middle

Reflections from Monday May 22, 2006 of Evolutionary Salon 3 Yesterday was a very full day, with rich conversations and interactions unfolding. A couple of Open Space sessions, while not fully engaging the collective as I have experienced it, were very fertile learning grounds for many in the group. The thread of conversation unfolded and a field, even with dissonance, took form. So it seemed to me the process of building the field for true inquiry into the Middle was progressing within the greater salon. Today my experience was very different. The Open Space sessions I attended were unfolding into knowledge sessions. People, in response to a question, to a need, to a solution, were putting forth their ideas in a very active back and forth of conversation and interaction. However, there seemed to be a lot of investment in what each person already knew. They were bringing forth past experience, expertise, theories they have developed, and very much proposing agendas for further conversation based on some benefit they would likely receive. The Open Space format seemed to become a way for causes and projects to be put forth, see who would be attracted, and then to begin to build on all that these very intelligent people have to offer. There was collaboration, negotiation, debate, and interchanging of ideas. The air was full of mental models. And so what is not right about this, you might ask? The harvest of ideas was rich and offered an almost endless stream of possibilities. The magic was not there, at least not for me. We were not engaged in a space of “not knowing”. We had not entered true inquiry, because we all had answers. We were not in the moment. I did not experience any willingness to not know, to be on the edge of inquiry, to sense into the middle, to put one’s attention on the space between, to contribute from a place beyond ego and for the good of the whole. And so the energy was dense, although sometimes animated, especially as someone offered their special idea and basked in recognition. But there was no sensing into something greater than any of us. There were no great ah ha’s. There were not those moments of silence or those shifts in energy the group goes to a different place. The voices were coming from individual knowing, not from the collective. It was really like a very well orchestrated brain storming session. I did not have the sense of collective intelligence as I have every experienced it. I did experience many people having some strong attachment to their own ideas, and sometimes in a way that blocked openness to other ideas. So I struggled with how to be with this. How could I play a more active role that might open another way of being together? It had not occurred to me that I would need to offer an Open Space session on the actual topic of engaging collective intelligence. I had thought that would naturally be part of our process. So tomorrow I will offer Open Space on something like Engaging the Magic in the Middle Moving to the Edge, to engage the Magic in the Middle Leaning into the Middle, engaging collective knowing Sensing into the Middle, engaging collective intelligence And the question, what should that be? What does the future want us to know? What are we learning right now about conscious evolution? Emerging ....